I’ve been slapped in the face with that fact this week, and it took me a while to remember that. I’ve been negligent about praying for protection of some very important relationships, thus lulled into lethargy about it. I’ve bought into the “it’s not me, it’s them” mentality, unable to see the big ole plank in my eye, and quick to think I have the right to be offended, hurt and that I’m right and they’re wrong, etc. And this morning, I had a revelation about it.

This week, I’ve experienced major conflict and discord within important relationships: family, work and a vital team at church – the pastoral search committee. ALL THIS WEEK! Coincidence? I’m thinking there’s a praise in there. I’m thinking we MUST BE CLOSE to doing God’s will in the committee. I’m thinking the enemy is trying to stir up trouble, not only there, but within our personal lives, to distract us. To crush us. To discourage us. To steal and kill and destroy.

After I thought about that this morning, I opened an email devotional & guess what I found for today? I just LOVE it when God gives me a GC!

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)Have you ever wondered why Jesus married those two statements? Did you even know he spoke them at the same time? I mean, he says them in one breath. And he has his reasons. By all means, God intends life for you. But right now that life is opposed. It doesn’t just roll in on a tray. There is a thief. He comes to steal and kill and destroy. Why won’t we face this? I know so few people who will face this. The offer is life, but you’re going to have to fight for it, because there’s an Enemy in your life with a different agenda.

There is something set against us.

We are at war.

I don’t like that fact any more than you do, but the sooner we come to terms with it, the better hope we have of making it through to the life we do want. This is not Eden. You probably figured that out. This is not Mayberry, this is not Seinfeld’s world, this is not Survivor. The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle unto the death. I am sorry if I’m the one to break this news to you: you were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell and played out here on earth.

Lord, You are so amazing. Thank you for your infinite grace, mercy, love and patience for your “stiff-necked people.” Forgive me for my oblivion to the snares of the enemy and my heart being shut to extending that same grace, mercy, love and patience to my brothers and sisters that you’ve extended to me. Thank you for showing me the plank in my eye. I ask that you send your angels to fight this battle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Protect our relationships with each other from discord and by the authority in Christ, help us to fight and flee the accuser of the brethren. May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

This reminds me of the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis….and very important to keep in mind.

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from family values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ.

“If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time so they can’t gain that experience in Jesus Christ.

“This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day.”

“How shall we do this?” shouted the evil angels.

“Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds,” he answered.

“Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work and the husbands to work six or seven days a week, ten to twelve hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.

“Overstimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to keep the TV, the DVD, and their CD’s going constantly in their homes. Tempt them to spend more time on their computers, especially watching internet pornography.

“Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news twenty-four-hours-a-day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products, services and false hopes.

“When they meet for fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength.”

RESPONSE: Today I will live in awareness of Satan’s subtle tactics to keep me from victory. I will stand against him and he will flee.

PRAYER: Lord, help me remain close to You today and not allow the “things” and “busyness” of life to crowd You out.

I am reading through the Chronological Bible right now and have gotten to Deuteronomy 8:11-20 where Moses has been reviewing the Israelites’ history through the wilderness and their purpose in the conquest of the new land they are about to undertake as he readies them for the transfer of leadership to Joshua.

There are so many things I am getting from these passages from Moses’ speech and am meditating on and will probably write about. But, today…..GC time!

My eyes opened wide as I read one of the last verses in this passage because of my post from yesterday. Read for yourselves.

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

I had a dream Saturday night. I mainly just remember the gist of it except for the last words I said: YOU ARE NOT GOD. I WILL NOT BOW DOWN TO YOU. I WILL NOT WORSHIP YOU.

In the dream, a new choir director came to town that everyone loved…except me. And I must have shown my dislike/non-approval/distrust because he wouldn’t let me sing. I was heartbroken because I love to sing. In my dream, I even said that singing was my life.

And this choir director kept pulling me aside to disparage me and belittle me and tell me how great he was. Everyone thought so. Why didn’t I? Why had I disrepected him so? I didn’t understand. I was the one who felt disrespected, left out, sad because I couldn’t participate. This choir was huge! It seemed that almost everyone was in it. And people couldn’t resist telling me what a great party they were going to have.

One day, the director pulled me aside again, to make sure I knew that he wouldn’t let me sing in his choir. In fact this time, he told me that I had always thought I was special, but that I wasn’t. I didn’t sing well and others were taking my place. And he told me that he didn’t care. That he never gave me a thought at all. I was too insignificant for him to even think about.

As I started to feel sad & even cry, I realized in my heart that it wasn’t true. I said, “That’s a lie. If that’s the case, then why do you keep pulling me aside to tell me? You obviously think SOMETHING of me.”

And then something else came to me. I realized something big. Something God was telling me. As I started to speak, I breathed “Thank You, Lord.” Then I said, “YOU ARE NOT GOD. I WILL NOT BOW DOWN TO YOU. I WILL NOT WORSHIP YOU.”

Sunday morning, our sermon from Pastor Alex was about authority figures – Matthew 8:5-13. How we, as humans, respond to authority figures. And how history shows that humans, in our fallen state, can blindly follow authority figures, even when it means harm to others.

Pastor Alex told us that Jesus was THE authority figure. With these questions:

Can I trust Jesus (does He have authority)?

Should I trust Jesus (how does He use his authority)?

Will I trust Jesus (will I actually submit to His authority)?

Last week I read a comment from Billy Graham that totally resonated with me: “commitment = surrender.”

From the number of music videos I post, you may have realized that music touches me so much & that I do love to sing. God definitely uses things that are important to us to communicate with us. I recall that this was the 2nd dream I’ve had about a choir director/worship leader, although the other one was many years ago. Everyone was deceived about her. She was sweet, kind and nice-looking. Everyone loved her. I kept trying to tell everyone that she wasn’t who she seemed! Not to trust her! I knew she was evil, but no one listened to me.

So….have I committed fully to Jesus? Have I submitted completely to His authority? Have we as Christians? Have you? Beware the deceiver.

1 Peter 5:8: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Update: Before I published this, on my way to work this morning, I tuned into KWVE radio and what were the VERY FIRST WORDS I HEARD?

DO NOT BE DECEIVED.

I kid you not.

The sermon message from Pastor Jon Courson was not actually on being deceived by the evil one, but another topic. HOWEVER, obviously God wanted me to hear this another way!

Early Native Americans were some of the best hunters in history. A combination of patience, wisdom, knowledge of the natural world, and respect for their place in it resulted in the skillful artistry of the hunt. One tactic in particular illustrates this beautifully. When hunting buffalo on the Great Plains, hunters would cover themselves in buffalo hides and carefully approach the grazing herd virtually unnoticed. With ease and skill, the hunters would kill dozens of buffalo before the rest of the herd was aware of the intruders. When the herd finally realized the attack, they began to stampede, but the hunters were far away in safety. Once the herd cleared, the successful hunters returned to retrieve their kill.
We have a word for this type of “sneak attack” today and it is called desensitization. When people are sensitive to something, they are keenly aware of what is happening around them physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Therefore, when we become desensitized, we become dull to what once drew our attention. This is a spiritual landmine and one that deserves our consideration. Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible, The Message, gives the warning this way: “Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up.”
It is likely that today many of us would be caught napping, not paying attention to the bells and whistles going off around us. We live in a society where we are surrounded by pride, envy, deceit, division, selfishness, and many other ills. I suspect that much of this doesn’t even raise a red flag with us anymore. As a people of God, we are called to be set apart. May today be our wake-up call.

Reading a recent post from a blogger I’ve just started following reminded me of this video that I’ve seen at church and that another Cristal had posted recently. And again, I am reminded me that I need to wear my God Glasses more often. My heart breaks each time I watch it because I wonder how many things I just do not “see.” How each person has a story that is defining their actions and behaviors. How sometimes there is a cry for affirmation, validation, love, service that I miss.

Lord, I ask that you place Your “glasses” on my nose every morning. Please forgive my blindness and any pain I may cause because of it.

This thought just occurred to me this morning as I prayed out loud. I’m one of those people who can focus SO much better when I talk out loud, not only when I pray, but at work. Just ask my poor co-workers who ignore my constant prattling to myself as I work…I hope.

He is not omniscient, I know. He can’t read my mind. Nor is he omnipresent. I don’t know why he’d bother with ME anyway. But what about his demons? His minions? Are they everywhere? Do they listen to us to harass us? We know that Satan is the deceiver and that our accuser. We are told in 1 Peter 5:8-9 to Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. And we are told in Esphesians 6:12 that ..our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So I definitely believe in spiritual warfare. My eyes were certainly opened to this in a new way when I read John Eldredge’s Waking the Dead and The Screwtape Lettersby C.S. Lewis.

But how do you think it works? I mean practically?

The enemy probably knows my weaknesses better than I do after all this time. But as I said, I pray out loud a lot. And with my journaling and this blog, does that mean that the enemy has extra ammo – extra fiery darts – to shoot at me?

The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.

Exodus 24:12

This is a fascinating portion of Scripture. At first glance, it looks like God is merely calling Moses to climb the mountain in order to receive the laws and commandments God has for His people. But, there is something so much bigger going on.

The phrase “stay here” in this text is better translated by the phrase, “be here” or “exist here.” So, this has led scholars over the years to wrestle with what Moses is actually being asked to do. Is God calling him to climb the mountain to merely get the tablets of stone, or is He asking of Moses something much more profound?

In essence, God is asking Moses to climb the mountain, not only to collect the tablets of stone, but to come up and be there – to exist there. He is asking Moses to come up and to be fully awake, fully alive, and fully present with God in that moment. He is asking Moses to live fully awakened to the fact that he is in the very presence of God, the creator and sustainer of all, in the here and now.

God knows that we live our lives at a breathless pace, rushing from one place to another. In essence, what God is saying to Moses is simply this: “Don’t miss it.” Don’t miss what is going on all around you. Don’t be so focused on somewhere else that you miss the very moment that you are in. Like Moses, our tendency would be to climb the mountain, thinking the whole time about what might be on the top, only to reach the top, thinking about what might happen when we get back down. All the time, we miss the mystery of the present moment.

What would it look like to live a life that is fully present? What would it look like to see God all around you, to live in the mystery of the present moment? I wonder how that would change our perception of what is important in this life.

Today, may our prayer be, God, awaken me to who You are and what You are doing in this world. Help me not to be looking forward to something or somewhere else. Help me not to miss it. Help me not to miss You.

I started reading Proverbs last week about discretion, wisdom & understanding. The note from the passage said “…..for some it’s a gift; for most it is developed by using God’s truth to make wise choices day by day. Hebrews 5:14 emphasizes that we must train ourselves…..”

My Life Group has been discussing how we could know God’s will and how we need to go to Him FIRST for all our decisions – even the small, minor ones that we think we can handle all by ourselves. It seems like no big deal to choose which parking space to take or what time to go to the grocery store or which computer to buy (yes, that decision was recently made) or whatever. He’s not really interested in those, right? And sometimes those small, minor decisions are a little bigger than that, but still not big ENOUGH to bother Him with…He’s busy, you know. And since we handled those just fine without Him, can’t we just handle these other problems without Him, too?

It’s like that childhood game “Mother May I?” Whether we take baby steps or giant steps without asking “Father, May I,” we don’t have to go back to the starting line or ask His permission for everything we do (1 Corinthians 10:23), but we certainly risk taking steps that may not be His perfect will for us. That may not grow us the way He desires. That may not further His kingdom.

Keeping in constant communication with the Lord as Brother Lawrence did (Practicing the Presence of God), along with all those other good spiritual disciplines, can give us a little help with all those “minor” decisions. If we pay attention. What if we don’t pay attention and miss a God appointment? What if He wanted our paths to cross someone’s who needed to hear just what we had to say? Or the opposite?

And taking even those baby steps ALL BY OURSELVES is that they can turn into giant steps that lead us away from Him, and we begin to become self-sufficient in our minds & hearts. I don’t know about you, but I struggle with the need to be in control. And struggle I do….it’s really tiring.

As my GC’s usually go, I am even reading a novel right now that has a dialogue between 2 characters:

“It’s not that easy to discern God’s will…”

“Maybe not, if you are looking for new answers. Maybe you should look for old answers. In the book. The Bible. I remember last summer you teaching that it is the words of God himself. Answers are made of words. And true answers never change.”

I must confess. My thoughts aren’t always positive and in line with God’s. I try, really I do. And sometimes, I’m successful. Days go by when I feel pretty darn good about it. Then….well, let’s just say, I don’t.

It’s easier when I’ve been deep in His Word, talking to Him, listening to Him. But sometimes, even that isn’t enough…

I’d LIKE to think this is ONLY spiritual warfare (if spiritual warfare should ever be linked with the word ONLY)…..something outside of myself. But I’m pretty sure that sometimes, it’s just me. Still struggling with that thing called sin.

Joyce Meyer in Battlefield of the Mind reminds me to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” I want to be obedient to Christ. He commands me to LOVE. Love is not critical and judgmental. I do not want to be judged the way I judge. The Lord knows how much I COULD and SHOULD be judged, but He gives His grace to me over and over….

She also tells me that “death is the result of following the mind of the flesh, and life is the result of following the mind of the Spirit.” If I dwell on the injustice done to me by another or start judging someone for what I think is a fault, I may notice that I’m “being filled with death” – getting upset, tense, stressed out, maybe even experiencing physical discomfort like headache, stomach ache, fatigue. Wow! I had never thought about it that way – I am being filled with death, rather than life!

Our thoughts may just be between us and the Lord, but “as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” Proverbs 23:7. I do not want to BE that judgmental person.

I want to be filled with LIFE and keep taking captive those thoughts that steal my JOY and my life.

Just another GC: I had written this a week ago but was waiting to publish until I “deemed appropriate.” However, in responding to a comment from another blogger, I found she had just published a similar post. Guess Someone wanted me to say this now :) and guess I’d better start asking Him when/what He wants me to say EVERY TIME! Thanks for teaching me & growing me bit by bit…